Jackie Tyler Saves the Universe
by chocolatequeen
Summary: The Doctor and Rose haven't told Jackie that they're married yet, but the Doctor accidentally lets the cat out of the bag as they fly the TARDIS to Canary Wharf. Little does he know that one shift in timelines could save his universe. Doomsday fixit, sequel to Believing and Knowing


The Doctor laughed jubilantly when the "ghost" disappeared. He ran back into the TARDIS to share his excitement with Rose—that was always his first thought now, whenever something went very right or very wrong, he wanted to share it with his bond mate.

She was sitting on the console when he closed the doors behind him, and he shot her a grin as he double-checked that the TARDIS had locked onto the right coordinates and sent her into flight.

"I said so!" He moved to stand between her parted legs, his hands resting on her thighs. "Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source."

Timelines shimmered around them as they followed the ghosts to their source, and a desperate fear suddenly threatened to overwhelm the Doctor. Something had been trying to take Rose from him for months, and it was here.

 _Rose…_ He cradled her face between his hands and leaned down to catch her lips in a kiss.

Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and held him close. _I love you, Doctor,_ she told him as her lips moved against his.

The sound of someone clearing their throat pulled the Doctor out of the pleasant haze he always fell into when kissing Rose. He released her lower lip with a soft pop and looked over his shoulder, hoping against hope he wouldn't see who he suspected was there.

Jackie Tyler was sitting on the railing, her arms crossed over her chest. She did _not_ look pleased. "'Not like that,' my arse," she said with a snort.

Rose hid her face against his neck. "Oh… right, my mum's still on board."

The Doctor swallowed hard. "Oh, this is bad in so many ways," he squeaked.

"You think?" Jackie jumped down and stalked towards them. "If we end up on Mars, I'm going to kill you."

The TARDIS landed with a hard thud, and he looked automatically at the scanner. They seemed to be in a warehouse somewhere, and as they watched, armed troops filled the room and trained their rifles on the TARDIS.

Jackie poked him in the back. "You can let go of my daughter now, if you don't mind. Pervy alien," she muttered

Rose straightened and loosened her grip on him, and glared over his shoulder at her mother. "Lay off 'im, Mum," she ordered. "We're married, all right?"

The Doctor's eyes widened and he shook his head frantically at Rose, but it was too late. Taking a deep breath, he turned around to face his mother-in-law, who was gaping at them like a fish.

" _Married?"_

The Doctor tugged at his ear. "Yep!" he said, his voice squeaking again.

Rose jumped down and took his hand. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you, but yeah. We're married."

Jackie's gaze flicked back and forth between them, and the Doctor waited for her inevitable explosion.

"So are my grandbabies going to have tentacles? How does that even work, with him being an alien?"

 _Oh no. I am not staying here to discuss grandkids and my own anatomy with Jackie Tyler._

He pulled the scanner around and pointed at the soldiers, still waiting outside. "Well, so much for the advantage of surprise," he said, talking as fast as possible to keep Jackie from getting a word in edgewise. "Still, cuts to the chase." He pointed at Rose and Jackie. "Stay in here, look after Jackie."

Irritation rippled over the bond, and he knew he hadn't phrased that well. "I'm not looking after my mum," she retorted.

Apparently, he hadn't stuck his foot in his mouth enough for one day, because the next words out of his mouth were worse. "Well, you brought her."

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie's indignant squawk made his ears hurt, but at least she'd moved on from her questions about his sex life with Rose.

The Doctor pretended he hadn't heard her and walked to the doors. Those soldiers weren't going to wait all day, and while he was confident in his ship's ability to keep people out, he didn't want to know what this lot would try to get inside.

Rose reached the doors before him and pressed her back to the door. "Doctor, they've got guns."

Her obvious fear reminded him of the timelines that had scared him earlier, and he tried to hide his worry behind a cheeky answer. "And I haven't. Which makes me the better person, don't you think? They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine."

Rose lowered her chin and looked at him, and the Doctor deflated slightly. _You know me too well, love._ Uncaring of Jackie's presence, he pulled Rose into his arms and kissed her, turning as he did, so that he was the one with his back to the door.

 _Be careful,_ he begged her, then he broke the kiss and slipped out of the TARDIS, her taste still on his lips.

oOoOoOoOo

"That's why you've got to go." The Doctor stared at Rose, silently begging her to listen to him. "Back to Pete's World. Hey, we should call it that—Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."

Rose shook her head and took his hand. "I'm not leaving you, Doctor."

He wanted to argue with her, but he'd promised when he'd married her that he would never make decisions like this for her again. He swallowed hard and nodded.

"Well, if she's not going, then neither am I."

The Doctor blinked and looked at Jackie Tyler, staring at him with a mutinous set to her jaw that he recognised from Rose.

"We haven't got time to argue," Pete said. "The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us."

Jackie put her hands on her hips and glared at Pete. "I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her." She looked back at the Doctor and Rose. "You're not what I imagined for my daughter, but you make her happy, so…"

"Jackie, you'd be safe on the other side," the Doctor protested.

Jackie raised an eyebrow. "If I followed your rambling earlier, I'll be safe no matter where I am, because I don't have any of that Void stuff on me. I might even be able to help."

Pete broke into their conversation. "We've got to go. Mickey, Jake, are you ready?" The two men nodded, and a moment later, all three of them disappeared.

Several timelines disappeared along with them, and but the Doctor didn't have time to examine what had changed. Instead, he fired off instructions to Rose and Jackie, and the three of them worked together to get the breach open.

When the lever on Rose's side of the room slipped, it was Jackie who ran forward, ducking around the Cybermen and Daleks flying through the room, to pull it upright. The Doctor felt the last timeline where he lost Rose vanish in that moment, and he wanted to cry for joy.

The last Dalek flew into the Void, and the breach closed itself behind it. The suction faded and the Doctor's feet dropped back to the floor. He looked at his mother-in-law in awe. "Jackie Tyler," he said as he pulled her into a hug, "you just saved the universe."


End file.
